Released
1997
Label
Beggars Banquet Records
Reviewed by
destruKt
Contact
Marbles Management
Unit 3.4
140 Tabernacle St.
London
EC2 A 4SD
Visit
Beggars Banquet
Main
Deliquescence
1. Particle Suspension
2. Phase Space
3. Outer Corona
4.Carrier Wave
5.Cavitation
6. Valency
7.Another
-- "Rave is boring, rave is dead. It's as simple as that! The rave scene has even disowned it's drugs. In the final analysis, rave has not created a transformation in society which now produces Madonna and everything with 909 bass drums" -- Alec Empire
As a refugee from late 80’s post-rockers Loop, Robert Hampston has for the past few years been involved with his infinitely more subtle solo project Main. Skirting the rather vague areas of isolationism and drifting ambience, Hampston has documented this hermetic sound world while criticising the fetishism of machinery often associated with the so-called ‘ambient-scene’. While this may appear ironic when first encountering Main’s work, it must be taken into account that Hampston has not turned his back on the guitar world to embrace electronic babble, he instead forges his world of ambient drone out of processed guitar effects and little else.
Deliquescence is a live album recorded at a festival in France in June 1997. This fact is rather meaningless, as the album sounds much the same as any of Main’s previous works. If anything, it puts a question mark over the relevance of a live performance, Hampston’s guitar meandering would seem unengaging on the live platform.
Physics, sound waves and celestial atmospherics are bought to mind with dissecting the song titles - "Carrier Wave", "Outer Corona", "Phase Space". Is this what Hampston has in mind when developing his music? It would seem so. Unfortunately the results are rather earthly, one imagines these hidden phenomena to have certain spatial qualities, and this is where Main falls down. The dronescapes are roughly hewed, closer to the sounds of bowed metal and scraping strings than anything more ethereal. "Particle Suspension" plays with a plodding bassline and looped feedback, under which a Microstoria-like electro glitch glides. "Phase Space" is the most impressive track, again the stuttering electronics are present, and Hampston’s guitar is processed deeper in the mix. Metallic textures are the name of the game here, but compared to the savagery of artists like Lull or more introspective moments of Paul Schütze, Main just can’t seem to cut it - the results are muddy and lethargic. "Outer Corona" resorts to a more structured take, building a rhythm from reverb. Gradually decay sets in and we are transported to an empty dock, the sound of droning foghorns and settling hulls is unsettling, but what good is it if we can see only the thick mist? "Carrier Wave" is unassuming, and "Cavitation" is little better. "Valency" crawls along on all fours, but offers hope when a sustained guitar texture kicks in, however it’s very little, very late.
In the overcrowded world of ambient noodling, it’s difficult to stand out. Main lacks the overblown power of the noise-drone scene and the spatial expanse of individuals like Schütze or Thomas Koner. Sitting somewhere in the middle is no longer as captivating as it once was, it all ends up sounding like it’s been done before, and it has... Hampston was the man doing it.
